Before my son was born, I would have probably tried to argue that being violent is only learned from your environment and being violent has typically been a male dominated idea...BUT I raised my son by myself until he was about 4 and I am an inherently non-violent person. I don't care for weapon toys or war movies, etc. As soon as he could chose things, he started choosing toy guns and would turn everything and anything into a sword or gun (seriously like a spatula could be a sword in his little hands).

So I don't know. Girls/women seem to like that sort of thing less, but I still think that its a part of nurture to be violent. Men are only manly if they don't cry and don't show emotion and I think that leads to an explosion of feelings that, unfortunately, tend toward the violent side. And yes, I know there are some incredibly violent women, but it does seem to be men more often than not that are the incredibly violent ones.

Anyhow, I'm tired as hell, so none of this may have been coherent, forgive me if it isn't.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

Certainly not worth killing people for, in my opinion. And sure, it sucks to be lonely, but there are options and usually, even though we might not like the options, you really never have to be alone. There is always someone who is willing to be around you. I'm guessing that, seeing as how he was a psychopath who thought he was justified in killing some women because he sucked, he really wasn't sending out the right vibes to attract people in the first place.

And I do think there are a lot of messages sent out about being a man and that meaning you should be violent and angry.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

I always liked what George Washington said about being alone: "It's better to be alone than to be in BAD company." (or something like that.)

Any women who might have spent time with the LA shooter were indeed in "BAD COMPANY."

Then there's the oft-repeated excuse coming from those who thought that their little sweetie could never be a trouble-maker: "But...but...but...he just got into the wrong crowd." I prefer to think that "He WAS the wrong crowd."

For several months after a young man in my area had died of a drug overdose, his poor grandmother wrote letters to the editor of a local newspaper about how awful it was that her beloved grandson had been led down the wrong path by his drug-using friends. Even though it was sad, the grandson was over 25 years old, had a child or two of his own, had been in rehab a few times, and yet continued to indulge his habit. He CHOSE to do what he did, and as a result, he died. Sorry, but people make choices and they don't like having to face up to the result of those choices. It's a rare thing to hear "Yes, I did it and I'm responsible for my actions, nobody else is to blame...just ME."

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Speaking of which, in the Richmond High beating story, one of the arrested, Marcelles Peter, had some of family being interviewed on TV. They were crying for him! "He wasn't involved he was just a bystander!"